Dismal Swamp has two supermarkets, and what is on offer is very predictable, you could just about do your shopping wearing a blindfold. (Oh, and the rest of your clothes, please.)
About 30 km from Dismal Swamp is a larger town which I’ll just call Big Dismal for the time being. It has a much larger supermarket with many exciting provisions on display. So, I got into Cedric the Sissy car and went on a big shopping adventure this morning.
What I saw in the meat section could just about convince me to become a vegetarian. I definitely won’t be including any of these on my menu.
What about you, have you ever tried any of these, or would you consider doing so?
Camels were introduced into Australia in the early 1800s camels
Kangaroos, on the other hand, are native to Australia
Bangas=bangers=snags=sausages
Another Australian native critter. Crocodile curry, hmm, no thank you.
Hello World 
Don’t think I could handle kangaroo meat….heave heard all the wrong things about them. However, happily tried all African fare put before me without question! Hmmmm!
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We’ve had kangaroo before, it’s quite tasty and very lean. I don’t think I could come at camel though. Wouldn’t it be tough?
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That’s how I imagine camel, rather stringy. But, we could be quite wrong, eh?
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You try it and let me know!
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I’ll fake it!
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Well then, don’t tell me it’s nice or I could be fooled into trying it by mistake!
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Actually, I had camel at the Carnivore in Nairobi, Kenya. It was a little tough but I don’t remember it being stringy. If I saw it on a restaurant menu I would not go out of my way to order it. Definitely would not buy it in a supermarket.
But the waiters come to your table with huge skewers of meat and put it on your plate. I remember not asking for seconds. I would have drawn the line at python even though people have told me that snake tastes like chicken. I don’t intend to find out.
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Indeed courage is needed to buy such a meat . We buy and eat only meat cut before us .
Hamburger is the cause of the obesity ?
It is a desperate thing to see even in Italy the American bad eating is spreading via the supermarkets !!! 🙂 Sorry.
Love ❤
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As I mentioned to Brian, I even saw the prepared meat meals in some supermarkets in Italy. That was a little surprise, Michel.
There seem to be so many additives in the foods we buy these days, some of them must be affecting our general well-being.
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Aren’t camel burgers a bit lumpy?
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Groan …
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Have had kanga bangas but not croc or camel. I wonder if they do camel toes like pig trotters…..
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Or, like chicken feet?
(Speaking of camel toes, have you seen the movie Little Miss Sunshine? ) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Little_Miss_Sunshine/
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Oh yes, love that movie. 😀
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I’m beginning to wonder if I should confess to all the interesting foods I tried and ate and loved while living for 3 years in the bush in Fiji. Fish eyes would be right at the top of the list.
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Urk! so, how were they prepared, and how would you describe the taste, Jane?
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Fish eyes usually come with fish heads which are also yummy . Size is a big determiner in the how they are fixed. Smaller fish were usually pan fried. Larger fish….2 to 3 feet stewed in coconut milk. The flesh around the face of the fish has more oil and the eye balls on bigger fish just a nice liquid pop of not overly fishy goodness (remembering of course…to spit out the hard center ball). The higher up the table you sat the better your food. I think most outsiders passed on the fish heads…but the locals regretted the fact that I thought they were the best part of the fish and generally took people up on the offer. Remember tinned beef can get old very fast! Also this was many, many years ago and I remember “good” more than exact taste…..
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In my books, you’re an adventurer, Jane.
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Not much of a meat eater at the best of times so nope, nope and triple nope for me. Wowza!
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Is that a maybe, Sue? 🙂
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Ha! Oh yes I am definitely on the fence . 🙂
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My boss took the department out to supper at a nice restaurant one night. The plan was to order surf and turf (we all went Dutch…!), but the boss paid for the drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
“Try these,” he suggested. In appearance, they seemed to be breaded and deep fat fried mushroom caps, and they were delicious! I nearly ruined my dinner stuffing on these delicious mushrooms, and the boss actually ordered a second plate of them.
“I guess you liked those,” he said, pointing to the delicacy I’d made a pig of myself eating.
I concurred!
“They are turkey fries,” he said. That is turkey testicles.
All of a sudden, the treat was a threat to my stomach, but I had to laugh at myself for making an involuntary grimace at something that tasted pretty good before I knew what it was!
Oftentimes, the idea is worse than the fact of what one is eating, though I suspect I’d barf my stomach to the lining if someone fed me sheep eyeballs disguised as food…! And I really can’t handle stinky cheeses: if it smells like the bottom of a stable, it will pretty much the same.
Along that line, escargot is garlic- and butter-flavored yumminess that looks exactly like a cooked snail! LOL! I don’t recall ever turning any snails down, so I know I can be adventurous if I don’t think to much about what I’m eating.:)
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“…taste the same. 🙂 “
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Now, I’m wondering how large those turkey testicles were, and who was the lucky person who got to remove them from the ‘corpses’ and prepare them!
I sure do agree with you about eyeballs, we’d have to be extremely hungry and even then I doubt we could do it.
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They were about the size of button mushrooms…!
Reminds me of the guy in Colorado a few years ago who got sent to prison for several years for stealing meat products from a packinghouse.
When given the chance to speak before sentencing, he noted he didn’t mind going to prison for theft, but he felt really stupid for going to prison for stealing several hundred dollars worth of packaged beef anuses!
The question comes up: What does one do with beef anuses and who wants them? Anyway, he thought he was stealing steaks or something he could sell under the counter to a restaurant.
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Great, you’ve got me thinking about recipes for beef anuses!
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You know I ate all of that kind of stuff and more the last two times I was down under. Some was not that bad, others well it was spit it out ASAP where is the napkin time? A simple Fritto Misto and spritz makes me happy
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You’re a very adventurous traveller, Joanne.
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There was a restaurant in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine (near where I live now) that was called ROAD KILL, and rumor had it that the menu was quite unusual and you never knew what the “special” of the day would be. I never investigated, and now I hear it’s closed.
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Oh boy, they had quite the marketing manager, Cynthia! It would be good to talk to someone who actually ate there, and find out the whole story.
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Lulu gets kangaroo biscuits. We don’t. I like my food dead and tender. I have eaten at Carnivore a couple of times but surrendered quickly. I couldn’t get the neck of giraffe on the plate. And I’m sure they were confused when I pointed to the chicken and said ‘and make it a big bustard’ followed by the crocodile sandwich and make it snappy. I think gelato is safer.
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I guess you needed a bigger plate, Andrew. You’d definitely need two hands to handle the Big Bustard.
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oh dear. Even though I am a vegetarian I did rather enjoy these photos. And I think about KFC at least once a week. Confession time….
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Bless me Father, I am a lapsed vegetarian …
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It is ok my child. Go now and eat 2 cucumbers and 1 tomato and try not to think too much about your transgressions. 😉
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Lol Yvonne…that is exactly what the Padre said!
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Not my cup of tea. Figure that I feel guilty when I buy chicken at the Coop in Fondamente Nove… 🙂
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I know what you mean, Winckelmann, it gets more difficult to look at meat products and think of how those creatures lived (and died).
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Kanga Bangers sound good. I had a camel burger in Morocco, it tasted disappointingly much like a beef burger!
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You’d probably like the Kanga Bangas, Andrew.
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Camel would be a new meat for me. I have not seen it in my supermarket. I enjoy kangaroo and I love crocodile.
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When I drive from my town to Cairns, I pass a roadside café where they advertise croc burgers. I’ve never felt tempted to stop. What does crocodile taste like, or is it in a flavour world of its own?
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I’ve only had it barbecued. Ate a lot of it while I was in crocodile country. It’s meatier than fish and fishier than chicken and yes, has its own flavour. 🙂 I think I can eat it everyday though if I can get hold of some I would try cooking it other ways. Green curry sounds great.
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I don’t eat any ‘cook and serve’ meals. Therefore I don’t go near those frozen food cabinets. However, I agree with above that kangaroo, medium rare, is excellent. Better than venison in some parts of the world! Helsinki’s reindeer tops my list in that category.
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I’m finding some adventurous diners in our midst!
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Can I just have a bowl of cereal?
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With pleasure. Now, for milk would you like: soy, rice, full cream, low-fat, skim, goat, lactose -free, organic, or …
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LOL! I’ll take whatever you have in the fridge. 😉
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That would be wine, or cat food.
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I’ll drink mine black. 😉
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I must admit to the fact that when I was at a restaurant called….what else?….The Carnivore in Kenya I had camel, Crocodile, Ostrich (ground in meat balls), and I can’t remember what else and no, none of it tasted like chicken. They had regular options of chicken and steak and even a few vegetarian options as a lot of tour groups stopped there. They just keep piling your plate until you put up your surrender flag. It was all okay, an adventure, I thought the croc had too many bones. There was nothing I would search out in the grocery store.
And I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would turn up their nose at the Venetian specialty of spaghetti with squid ink. If my food is black it better be with Cajun spice!
Funny to see those things in the super market although I’m not surprised by the kangaroo down there.
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Now you’ve reminded me of my honeymoon (mid-winter, sunny downtown Minneapolis), where my husband and I decided to bring frog legs from the grocery shop and have them for dinner. I think we went to bed quite hungry.
Pasta con sepia isn’t bad, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of things on the menu.
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Karen said she would order it because she liked it and let me taste it but we never ended up having that meal. I tend to be an adventurous eater but I have to like the look of something and for some reason black food just doesn’t make if for me unless I know it’s char from the fire. Ah, well, never thought I’d eat Sarde in Saor but I love it.
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“Simply Heat and Serve” Eating? Well, that’s another story.
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Yup, a whole ‘nother story, Brian. Heck, I even saw some of that type of meal in supermarkets in Italy.
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Kangaroo Bolognaise? No thank you! What other attractions are in Big Dismal, Y?
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I’ve used kangaroo mince to make chili con carne and it was quite good. Kangaroo steak, well prepared, is also tasty.
Big Dismal attractions, I never thought I’d see that in one phrase. Well, there are a few coffee plantations in the area with associated coffee shops/restaurants , a couple of good Italian delis, a heritage museum.
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Ah! It’s just a return to Oz culture shock. I wonder what we would say if our beef was called Moo munga or Cowburgers and our mutton called “Baa Baa Burgers.?
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While I was writing this post, it crossed my mind that it sure is a matter of what you’ve grown accustomed to, suchled. (Or, how hungry you are, I guess.)
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Kangaroo is supposed to have no bad fat in it. I don’t like the taste but it’s good if it’s curried well. And I really can’t stand crocodile.
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I’d be a vegetarian too if that was what was offered, but I guess it’s what one is used to.
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You’re so right Darlene, you’d have encountered some different food items during your travels.
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It’s certainly different from what we’re used to.
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Have you eaten anything quite different in Canada, Anneli?
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Lots of game meat. But what we consider normal might be different for people of other countries. I draw the line at eating dogs. That’s a whole post in itself, but I don’t dare go there!
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Well, we’ve had moose, buffalo, elk, deer, rabbit, wild boar and antelope. Could have tried rattlesnake and bear, but didn’t for some reason or other… Otherwise, I wouldn’t eat these things unless they walked into my kitchen to eat me…
Randy
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You’re much more adventurous than I, Randallo!
Happy Independence Day to you folks.
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So what did you buy?
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Chicken breast and pork chops, Jane. And lots of fruit and vegetables.
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Some unusual fruits or veggies…..I mean there must be some enjoyable food advantage to living down under…..!
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In season, there are some strange and wonderful fresh products, Jane, such as Custard apples, loquats, Mangosteen, Dragon fruit, chokoes, lilli-pilli berries to name a few. Oh, and then there is the bush tucker which is becoming quite popular: http://www.mcd.com.au/our-range/australian-native-foods/fruits
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Kids all love the kanga bangas , croc is yummy , I have had camel jerky and must say it has a very strong offensive odour ,but is a good chew 🙂
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You and the kids are always adventurous, Paul.
Hey, your place down south is looking good, with all your hard work. Your old place up here has had a new roof, and it’s also looking good!
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I’d give them a go. Easily said when I live in UK 🙂
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Maybe Tesco has some for you, Derrick?
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I wasn’t actually planning to investigate 🙂
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🙂
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Head me to the gelato section……
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Big Dismal has a large Italian population, so the gelato selection is quite satisfactory, Linda. 🙂
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Ooooh. You are sooo fussy Yvonne ….. umm ….. so am I 😀 ❤
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I guess we’re just not adventurous, Ralph.
On the other hand, Minx (the cat) does enjoy the kangaroo mince she gets most days. Sonic and Samantha would probably join her at the food bowl for that. 🙂 ❤
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I expect they would like that Yvonne, so long as I tell them it’s chicken 😉 ❤
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I think I could happily pass by this section of the supermarket.
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It’s a case of look, don’t buy, Debra. Are you going to the celebrations on Story Bridge today?
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